DVD Pick of the Week: TIDELAND

Poor Terry Gilliam. Despite his storied career as a member of Monty Python and a critically-acclaimed, fanboy-revered maverick director, virtually every film he’s made in his thirty-plus years behind the camera has been beset by some kind of struggle. Yet where once, his bitter studio battle over Brazil or the escalating budget of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen became legendary examples of success despite adversity, Gilliam’s luck in recent years has been slim. Though chronicled in the great documentary Lost In La Mancha, his period piece The Man Who Killed Don Quixote fell apart spectacularly; his adaptation of the Gaiman/Pratchett masterpiece Good Omens remains unproduced, despite the fact that the book’s fans maintain he’s the only director who could do it justice. (Present company included.) And last year, his eccentrically bleak coming of age tale Tideland virtually came and went without so much as a peep. Fortunately, it arrives on disc this week in case you blinked and missed it the first time.

In many ways, Tideland is the darkest film yet from a filmmaker who has practically beat a path to embrace dark themes and downbeat endings his entire career. Gilliam’s unmatched capacity for whimsy, despite the deepest tragedy, is what keeps buoyant the tale of Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland), a young girl who is taken to a rural farmhouse by her father after her mother dies of a heroin overdose, as her methods of coping with the tragedy becoming increasingly bizarre. Young Ferland delivers a remarkable performance that more than holds its ground against two of the finest actors around: Jeff Bridges, as her father, and Janet McTeer as a local oddball she befriends. With a loose storytelling structure and a lot of difficult material, Tideland isn’t a walk in the park but for fans of the avant garde, as well as Gilliam aficionados, though it is well worth a look.

Other recommended titles for February 27th: Magnum P.I.: Season 6; Stranger Than Fiction; Tenacious D: The Pick of
Destiny; Voltron Vol. 3

—Nicole Campos

“Sha-la-la-laaaa!”

Family Ties: Season One

So far the numbers indicate that the Republicans are going to have their work cut out for them in ’08; even their biggest crowd pleaser, Rudy “Boom Boom” Giuliani, doesn’t seem to be getting much traction in the polls. Not that that’s such bad thing, but you’ve got to wonder if they’re ever going to get off their asses and find themselves an Alex P. Keaton to run for president. Who could say no to that face? That comic timing? That crass yet irresistible snark? Well okay, I’m liberal enough that I probably still could… but I’d be sorely tempted for about ten minutes. It’s been far too long a wait, but this week Paramount finally releases the first season of Family Ties, the sitcom that made Michael J. Fox a household name before Back to the Future launched him into super-stardom, and good news, it has aged remarkably well despite being a true relic of Reagan’s 1980’s, featuring liberal ex-hippie parents vs. a burgeoning NeoCon capitalist son!

Interestingly, a look back on the opening season reveals the show’s evolution to the height of its popularity, when Fox became the break-out star and his battles with prog parentals Elyse and Steven became more common. Family Ties v. 1.0 spent a leisurely year establishing the family dynamic and delivering as many laughs as it did thoughtful and serious family issues. (Steven’s work buddy hitting on barely-teen Mallory?! Yikes! Not to mention the two-parter wherein “cool” uncle Ned, played by some young buck named Tom Hanks, got nicked by the feds for corporate crimes.) Mostly, it’s the not-yet sappy warm and often quite wry classic you remember. By the way, no one was as wry as little Tina Yothers. Most underrated kid actor ever? Oh, I think so – watch her go toe to toe with Michael J. and tell me I’m wrong.

Other recommended titles for February 20th: American Hardcore; Flushed Away; A Man For All Seasons; Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Season 4; The Prestige

—Nicole Campos

Diiiisgusting boy!

The Butcher Boy

Mere moments into Neil Jordan’s 1997 ultra-black comedy The Butcher Boy, we know it’s going to get ugly - “…on account of what I done to Mrs.Nugent,” says Francie Brady, the young Irish lad at the center of Patrick McCabe’s award-winning novel and Jordan’s film. He doesn’t elaborate, and frankly that’s fine because we’ll get to the gory details in due time. Jordan is an accomplished director with loads of range, yet for my dollar The Butcher Boy is definitely his most underrated film, a character study about just what makes a murderer – a child murderer, no less – that is pure cinema for every surreal, uncomfortable, hilarious and brazen minute. Tuesday’s release is the first time it’s available on DVD, including a director’s commentary and deleted scenes.

The key to riding Jordan’s unpredictable wave is coming to terms with our unreliable narrator. Francie – an astonishing performance by Eamonn Owens, then just thirteen and channeling a charismatic menace worthy of Cagney – is not only unreliable, but certainly crazy; we can never really know how much of the story really happened as told, or is colored by Francie’s insanity, brought on largely by anguish over his depressive mum and alcoholic dad or the intrusive cruelty of their nosy neighbor, the doomed Mrs. Nugent. Stylistically the film bounces from satire to horror with unnerving ease, but never fails to engage our emotions and make us feel for the little terror, even as he manipulates everyone around him including the clergy, the ladies down at the grocers, the doctors in the loony bin and the blessed Virgin herself. (Sinead O’Connor as Francie’s “vision” of Mary may be stunt casting, but it’s also brilliant.) While it’s doubtlessly not everyone’s cup of tea, The Butcher Boy is guaranteed to get a reaction; whether emerging from it enthralled or aghast – or both – you’ll be alive for those 109 minutes. Which is more than we can say for Mrs. Nugent.

Other recommended titles for February 13th: Beauty And the Beast: Season One; The Departed: Special Edition; Half Nelson; Performance; Reno 911!: Most Wanted; The US vs. John Lennon

—Nicole Campos

ICE CREEEEEAAAAAAAM!

Eddie Murphy: Delirious

Want to generationally-profile your friends and acquaintances? Just look them square in the eye and say “I have one word for you. Just one one word…..

“Goonie-goo-goo.”

If they’re laughing hysterically, it means that they probably grew up in the 80’s and feel the same way we do about Delirious, Eddie Murphy’s landmark 1983 standup concert recorded at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., which finally lands on DVD this week. “Goonie-goo-goo” being the punchline of an extended bit about Murphy’s hirsute Aunt Bunny, who isn’t the only family member he sends up during the raunchy 70-minute long special that became a smash hit for the young comedian following his breakout on SNL and back to back hits 48 Hrs. and Trading Places. It was also, for most of us kids at the time, a classic case of desperately seeking out something you shouldn’t; sneaking downstairs when our parents were asleep to watch Delirious on HBO, trying to stifle our nervous giggles, was a bonafide rite of passage in the 80’s, much the same way listening to Richard Pryor records was for the generation before.

Pryor’s influence is all over Murphy’s performance here, which he’d go on to acknowledge in the good-but-not-quite-as-funny Raw a couple of years later. Though in retrospect, the no-holds-barred approach to his material isn’t always as finessed as it could be – it was probably a mistake to put all those gay jokes at the top of the show, as he still gets branded a homophobe to this day – but what makes Delirious work in the end is the showmanship, which he’s got in spades. From the red leather jumpsuit and chains to a stunning battery of flawless musician impressions (Elvis and James Brown especially, though Teddy Pendergrass is a personal favorite: “That motherfucker’s crazy, throw your panties on the stage!”), Murphy’s more than just a little bit rock star and he knows it, playing straight out to the back of the room for every punchline.

With Dreamgirls acclaim and his career seemingly back on track for the first time in years (Yes, we’re prepared to forgive him for Norbit if he can pull better offers from here on out), it’s an excellent time to revisit Eddie when he was just as crass, yet pretty goddamn funny.

Other recommended titles for February 6th: The Amazing Screw-On Head; Anything But Love, Vol. 1; Hellboy: Sword of Storms; Hollywoodland; The Science of Sleep.

—Nicole Campos